Anniversary in Yaroslavl (06.2011)

It was supposed to be Europe for our 20th anniversary, but not knowing if Susan might need another surgery on her thumb, we decided to conserve our resources and headed north for a four day weekend. We spent two nights in the village of Vyatskoe as guests of Oleg Zharov who's made it his mission to revitalize and restore this town of one thousand residents, followed by two nights in the region's capital, Yaroslavl - a 1001 year old city on the Volga River in what's known as Russia's Golden Ring. It took us more than seven hours to drive the 150 miles north thanks to Moscow's infamous traffic jams and mediocre to poor roads, and once there we encountered heat, humidity and monster mosquitoes, but it's about togetherness... right?

These banyas dating from the beginning of the 20th century belong to village residents & are still in use today. I used Orton & sepia filters to reflect how it might once have been photographed. Oleg generously gave us a watercolor of this scene that we admired in his museum.